


Unforgettable

by autumnsolstice9



Series: Robb & Arya [5]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, not starkcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 10:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11011566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsolstice9/pseuds/autumnsolstice9
Summary: prompt: things you said you'll never forget"I promise I won't forget you, if you never forget me"





	Unforgettable

She knows Robb will come for her.

Before she had left Winterfell- before everything went wrong- she had hugged him tight, trying to remember every detail of her home before she went to King’s Landing. “Don’t forget me,” she had teased, trying to hide the sorrow in her voice.

Robb had only held her tighter, bending down to get eye level with her. “Arya, I will never forget you as long as you never forget me. I promise you that.” he told her, his voice serious and even, but with a hint of laughter in it. She knew he saw it as a joke- why would he have reason to forget her when they thought they would see each other again, that they would have to shoot arrows as they told each other about their life apart from each other. 

The last words she said to Robb were “Don’t forget me,” and as Yoren marches her north, back towards home, she dreams of being a wolf, of her father’s head being cut off, of Sansa’s screams.

Sometimes she dreams of Robb finding her and wrapping her in a hug like he did before she was gone, before life became like Old Nan’s stories, before they knew that the south was no place for a Stark.

***

In her dreams, she runs with a pack of wolves. They look to her as a leader- something this dream wolf does not mind- but when she looks to the moon she feels an emptiness in her heart as she remembers a pack from long ago and a wolf she called brother.

When she howls at the moon, releasing all her agony into this call, her pack joins in, and in the distance, miles away, she hears a lone wolf answer her.

Arya wakes up, and when Hot Pie asks her what problem she has this time, she has only one answer:

_"Grey Wind.”_

Hot Pie asks her what that means, but she doesn’t focus on him. Instead, she looks at the moon and thinks about red hair and a whiskered face.

She thinks of Robb, and before she falls back to sleep, she imagines he is thinking of her too.

***

Gendry tells her she is being ridiculous. “You’ll never survive out there on your own!” he shouts at her, and she would be filled with rage if she didn’t know how worried for her he really was.

“I don’t have to be alone,” she shoots back, her voice strong and filled with hope that he won’t leave her, not like everyone else has left her, “you can come with me! You can join Robb’s army- we wouldn’t turn away a blacksmith, definitely not one as talented as you.”

She only needs to look at his face to see the internal struggle he is facing. Arya has lived through enough conflict to learn when someone is unsure- and Gendry’s pinched face, closed eyes, and clenched fists show the battle he is facing.

The second he opens his eyes, Arya sees the guilt swimming in the blue and knows that he won’t be going with her. What she doesn’t expect is for his words to cut through her like knives. “I won’t serve any lords, not anymore. Arya, please don’t do this, don’t go out there. How do you know Robb will even remember you? Your hair is short, you look like a boy! How can you be certain he will know it’s you? I won’t be a part of this.”

It is as if he has cracked through her, and her wobbly voice belies how hurt she is. “He would never forget me. He promised. I don’t need you to come with me. Robb will remember me.”

When she leaves the camp, she keeps repeating it in her head. _Robb will remember me. Robb will remember me. Robb will remember me._

_Robb will remember me, even if Gendry forgets._

***

The Hound has brought her so close to the Twins that hope is in everything- the air she breathes, the food she eats, the grass she runs her hand through.

This is the closest she has been to Robb since she left Winterfell, and she can barely contain her excitement.

“Yer brother is an idiot,” the Hound grumbles from where he sits. “Tryin’ to make a deal with the Frey’s. What a bloody idiot. You should never trust a Frey.”

She is quick to defend him- “He needs House Frey so he can control their bridge and head south!”

“What’s the point in headin’ south? He’ll never beat the Lannister men. What’s the point in tryin’ when everyone knows he’s goin’ to lose?”

“Because,” Arya whispers, her voice quieter than before, “he wants to get back Sansa and I. He must think I’m still there. The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.”

The Hound only snorts in response, but Arya spends the rest of the night worried that maybe- just maybe- he did forget her. Maybe he thinks she’s dead and is heading to rescue Sansa. Maybe he only wants revenge for their father’s death.

She pushes the thought from her mind. It won’t matter anyway, not when she will be able to see Robb tomorrow and he will know for certain that she is alive.

Then she won’t have to be just a memory for him.

***

She never learns if Robb remembers her or was thinking of her. She only learns what her brother sounds like when he screams and what true grief sounds like as her mother cries over his body.

The Hound leads her out of the Twins, and Arya feels weightless. 

“I don’t want to remember that,” she whispers after hours have passed and they are far away from the massacre.

“Hush, little wolf,” he says.

“Don’t call me that,” she says, her voice quiet and dead, “don’t call me what he used to.”

***

Despite her trying, she can never truly forget the Red Wedding. Anytime she thinks of Robb, she feels like throwing up and crying. Instead, she begins training how to turn her face to stone, to become someone else completely.

She forgets Robb entirely the day she drinks silver liquid and wakes up a master of changing faces. “A girl has no brothers,” she mutters, and when she dreams of a wolf whistling in the forest, of Jon Snow, of a red beard and toothy smile, she wakes up wondering if her training is actually complete.

No one has no brothers. Arya Stark lies in bed in the House of Black and White, and promises that even though he is gone, she will not forget her brother Robb.

**Author's Note:**

> yo your girl is back!!!! I gotta work on the colors requests and then Needlework bc im not feeling that one right now but it will get done eventually!!!!!


End file.
